Ambush
by JGT1201
Summary: When two friends camp for the night in Stranglethorn Vale, what awaits in the jungle at night and will they be safe come morning? OC Based one shot in a series.


**Disclaimer; I claim no ownership of World of Warcraft or any character's therein that are not of my own creation (OC).**

**So, have you ever had an idea, forgotten about it and went back to see it again and thought to yourself; "I could make that work"? Yeah this is one of those stories.**

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Stranglethorn Vale, an unspoiled oasis of tropical jungle and wilderness in the Eastern Kingdoms. Currently however the jungle paradise was in a small predicament, that being a murderous group of Gurubashi Trolls had chosen a very inopportune time to make their resurgence into the world of Azeroth known. Kaeldenas the Hunter ducked under horizontal axe blow from a particularly nasty looking Troll. Grom'Gol was in urgent need of defence and he had lost count of both the number of Trolls he killed and the number of people who had deserted in the midst of the battle. One who did not abandon the frantic defence of the small Horde base was his companion Kuronox, garbed in full Elementium Deathplate she was a blur of blood and fury as she mercilessly cut a path through countless enemies, Kaeldenas saw one huge brute of a Troll attempt to flank her and quickly shot an Ice Trap at it; immobilizing the juggernaut.

"Watch your left flank Kuro!" He shouted before being attacked from his right by a particularly sneaky Troll, he groaned at this little slice of hypocrisy from him, chastising his ally without heading his own advice. The Troll had no chance really because as soon as his dagger had grazed Kael, the unfortunate Troll found himself being mauled by a huge wolf. Ace, Kaeldenas's wolf pet and faithful companion, was at his master's side within an instant. The Troll rolled away from Ace and sprang to his feet only to find an arrow in his throat as soon as he stood. Kael perhaps should have kept count because arrows were just littering the ground from all his shots, it would have been a good competition between him and Kuronox.

"When you watch yours!" The aforementioned Death Knight shouted back to him, shattering the ice surrounding the brute of a Troll that Kael had trapped, felling the beast in mere seconds. The small party took this chance to regroup and collect their thoughts, in the space of a few days everything in Stranglethorn had kind of… Gone to hell. Vicious forces were at work at the worst of times, Kaeldenas had especially lamented the discovery of yet another malicious group on Azeroth. Kuronox remembered his almost childish complaints;

"Perfect!" He groaned as the cause of the increased aggression of the jungle serpents was discovered. "I bet right here that this is something WE have to fix and I bet you two thousand gold that it's not going to be half as easy as just charging in and shooting them in their throats."  
At the time Kuronox found it humorous but now, it always seemed like no matter what they did someone, somewhere wanted to destroy their home. More than likely they would all be connected by some malevolent conspirator pulling all the strings but only time would tell that.

Kuronox was shaken from her thoughts when Kael had to roughly tap her forehead to draw her attention to the potion he was handing her. She pushed it back to him. "You drink it; I've got other ways to heal." As she said that Kaeldenas saw her Ghoul collapse beside her and a small aura of shadow pass over her and heal her minor wounds. He raised his potion in mock salute.

"To… Gravelmuncher or whatever the hell that one was called." He downed the viscous red fluid and rolled his shoulders with a sigh, thankfully Commander Aggro'gosh took that time to tell them they had done enough and that they should continue on their quest to find the mysterious Emissary of the Darkspear Tribe. Kaeldenas and Kuronox both called on their respective mounts, the Celestial Steed was Kaeldenas's personal favourite while Kuronox favoured her Winged Guardian. They flew for barely twenty minutes before Kaeldenas had to signal for Kuronox to land in a relatively secluded clearing.

"Something wrong Kael?" She inquired as they landed and he practically collapsed. She rushed to his side and he waved her off with his left hand covering a yawn with his right.

"We've been on the go constantly since six in the morning today; it's now just past one in the morning. I just need some rest." He said sleepily before grinning at Kuronox. "We aren't all tireless Death Knights." His lame joke had about the reaction that he thought it would. Kuronox sighed and set about securing the area while he built a campfire. Over the course of this small task it amazed him that he could shoot an enemy from a great distance in this fatigued state but a simple task such as building a fire left him with no less than four burns on his hands. He cursed the fire when it finally was sustaining itself and rubbed his sore hands after removing his gloves. Collapsing back onto the ground he was aware that he should prepare some food, being the only semi-proficient cook in their group. "Hey Ace!" He called out to his wolf, which obediently trotted over. "Think you could grab me my backpack buddy?" The large beast stared at his master then the backpack in question, no more than five yards away and finally his master again. "Come on Ace I'm so tired…" Kael could have sworn that Ace rolled his eyes but still went over and fetched the backpack that Kaeldenas had recklessly dropped upon dismounting his steed.

Kael sat up when the back dropped onto his stomach with a thud, his wolf had such a strange sense of humour. Kuronox had returned from her small patrol content that the area was indeed safe. While Kaeldenas worked on a basic stew for the duo Kuronox lay back and stared at the stars, she found it funny that with everything that had happened, the Cataclysm, the Trolls and the almost open war between Horde and Alliance that places like this clearing would remain untouched. Kaeldenas slid a small bowl of stew over to her and began monstrously devouring his own bowl, which Kuronox would note was quite a bit larger than hers. Not that she minded of course, being a Death Knight there was only so much she could taste, however Kaeldenas had told her once that he; "had a guy working on that." What that meant for her she chose not to speculate. The duo ate mostly in silence save for Ace's low growls for some stew and Kaeldenas reluctantly telling him that this would be the absolute last little bit he got, several times.

Finally after the small meal, Kaeldenas added some more wood to the fire and rolled out a bedroll for himself and bid Kuronox goodnight. Kuronox decided that she might as well get a little rest since she actually was feeling fatigued today as well, she had no idea how Kaeldenas was even able to stay awake let alone fight if someone like her was feeling tired. So with a small instruction to Kael's mighty wolf to watch the camp she too lay beneath the starlight sky and let sleep overtake her, as the crackle of the fire and the sounds of the jungle at night soothed the two into a restful slumber.

All was not well within the jungle however as unbeknownst to Kuronox, Kaeldenas and Ace a group of three elite unknown Trolls had been sent to kill them as soon as something like this happened, they had been tailing the duo since Grom'gol and now they would strike. The largest of the three and as such the leader instructed his two hunting allies to move slowly into the camp keeping watch for the pet. Silently they crept into the clearing, carefully stepping over any sticks that might alert their quarry. Their plan was to simply sneak up on the duo and cut their throats while they slept, it would be quick, easy and almost impossible for a group of their standard to fail, that is if it weren't for the fire cracking loudly at that moment which caused one of their group to jerk backwards and step on a stick making another loud crack, different from the fire. That was all it took to wake the duo, hardened by combat they never truly fell into a very deep sleep out in the wild so they were on their feet in a heartbeat.

However fatigue had truly set in on Kaeldenas who was quickly overwhelmed by the two smaller trolls, while the large one wrestled Kuronox to the ground before she could grab her axe. Restraints were slapped onto Kaeldenas and Kuronox and their executioner stood triumphant in the glow of their fire. The huge troll emitted a deep hoarse chuckle.

"Have ye any last words before ye succumb to de sweet embrace of da grave?" He drawled, holding Kuronox's face in his giant hands. She jerked her head away and the two smaller Trolls held her and Kaeldenas by their hair. Kuronox growled and jerked her head again, this time to indicate Kaeldenas.

"I'm sure he has two words for you." She hissed, the Gurubashi Trolls all laughed and the leader bent down to be face to face with Kaeldenas.

"Go on den, pretty boy say your final piece." He goaded, and Kael looked up with a grin.

"Sic 'em." At that command, Ace burst out from the trees and literally bowled over the huge Troll, who was instantly screaming for aid while Ace tore at his throat. Kuronox headbutted the stunned Troll next to her and roared, destroying her restraints with a mighty pull, with her hands free she proceeded to attack the Troll that grabbed her hair with nothing but her fists and her spells, meaning she was still deadlier than most.

Kaeldenas decided on a different route as his Troll was also stunned but Kael lacked the physical strength that Kuronox had. Instead he rolled backwards and got to his feet ready to subdue the Troll with some clever, improvisation. This Troll, Kaeldenas noticed was armed with not just a dagger presumably to cut their throats but also a large axe which was currently sailing toward Kael's neck. Swiftly he ducked under the axe, leaning his body backward, bending like a reed in a storm. He dodged to the left avoiding a downward swing and rushed the Troll, who was bent over trying to retrieve his axe now stuck in the ground. Instead of attacking the Troll however, Kael simply used his body as a spring board and rolled over the Troll, toward their leader and Ace.

"Ace!" He called and the huge wolf dashed to his master, with one tremendous bite Ace destroyed the bindings around Kaeldenas's wrists. "Good bad dog." He praised before his tone turned dark. "Now go for the throat." At that Ace rushed back to finish off the largest Troll who died with a horrific scream. Kaeldenas cast a glance over at Kuronox who was actually doing a damn good job of fighting the other Troll, also wielding an axe, with just her fists. Every swing she blocked by punching away the Trolls wrists with one hand and raining down blows with her other hand, plus the diseases she used to hinder the Troll weren't helping the poor brute's case much. Content she could handle herself Kael set about dealing with the other Troll who now had his axe free. Holding up his hands in a mock gesture of piece Kaeldenas tried another tactic.  
"I know what you're thinking, just one Elf against you're axe. Doesn't even seem like an issue does it?" He asked as he and the Troll circled each other, the fire crackling and the sound of Kuronox's battle echoing into the night.  
"Think about it like this though, I don't even have to kill you, I just need to escape, now what do you think the chances of you finding a hunter at night in the jungle are if I chose not to fight? Slim to none is correct there gruesome. Let's face it, you're not in the employ of the nicest folks, clearly. What is it that your tribe elders do to failures? Worse than what I'm going to do to you? I certainly hope not." The words certainly seemed to get through as the look of battle crazed fury on the Toll had been replaced by sudden unmitigated terror. Even if the Elf killed him it wouldn't stop those who sent him from punishing him…

He turned tail and ran but was stopped by the Elf's huge wolf who barred his path bearing its teeth menacingly. "Now hold on, I didn't say we were done. You can relax. I'm not planning on killing you or even hurting you, I just want some information. Who sent you to kill us? Who wants me dead?" He growled at the Troll, who managed to stutter out.  
"I-I never be tellin' ya mon!" The Troll charged at Kael in both desperation and sudden anger. Kaeldenas ran forward however and at the last second slid between the legs of the Troll when he tried to decapitate the elf; while he was sliding Kael dropped a small blue crystal which exploded to encase the Troll in an Ice Trap. Kaeldenas quickly retrieved Kuronox's axe and with a great heave he tossed it to the ground next to her, how she was able to swing that around was a mystery to him. When the axe hit the ground with a dull thud Kuronox smirked at the Troll, trapping him further within chains of ice and retrieving her axe, whereupon she chose to brutally cut the Troll down in seconds, having finsihed her own Troll several seconds ago.

"Well… That could have gone worse." Kael said after a brief moment of silence, walking over to the now ruined fire, at some point in the scuffle it must have been crushed, to inspect the fallen body of one of the Trolls. "At the very least we know who attacked us."

"What? How is that possible? He told us nothing." Kuronox said, gesturing with her axe casually to the pile of flesh that used to be a Troll.

"He doesn't need to, look here." Kael said laying down a flare, the light providing Kuronox with plenty vision to see the markings and war paint on the other Troll's corpse, that Ace had so kindly finished off.

"Yes. Trolls paint themselves but its like Zhevra stripes is it not?" Kuronox asked, getting impatient with Kaeldenas's unforthcoming answers.

"Not quite. Yes each Troll's markings are unique to that Troll but the tribes will all have recurring themes in their markings, particular symbols to evoke particular spirits or mojo or juju whatever is important to that tribe." Kuronox nodded along with his explanation, it wasn't often he had on his knowledgeable head but when he did spout wisdom it usually paid to listen.

"Now see here? This marking usually denotes The Skullsplitter tribe, but the markings aren't right, there are some symbol just missing parts or altogether missing to be genuine Skullsplitter but it stands to reason that it can't be the Bloodscalp either because they're spread too thin to just throw away warriors as strong as these. They must have been sent from Zul'Gurub to eliminate us before we became TOO much of a threat, no doubt we made an impression on them earlier today." Kaeldenas finished his little deduction just as the flare went out so the last thing he saw was Kuronox's surprised look at his quick and accurate deduction.  
"How…?" She began before he started laughing.

"Hunter remember? Did you think they only taught me how to shoot things and lay traps in training? Well yes that was day one but tracking and identifying local species was day two." He joked, and even in the darkness Kuronox could swear that she was able to see his Cheshire grin. "Impressive huh?" Kuronox declined to answer; instead she simply began packing up their small camp in the near dark.

"Start packing; we can't camp here for the night anymore, I'm sure they'll send others once these brutes don't report back." She finished with a sigh. When she noticed Kaeldenas was just sitting prodding the fire she turned around and groaned. "Would you rather stay here and kill things all night?" She asked rhetorically.

"No, just thinking about the closest place we can rest in safety… I guess we're flying down to Booty Bay right?"

The duo packed up with relative speed and soon they were back on their respective mounts flying southward. Kuronox noticed something absent on the way down however, Kaeldenas was being unusually quiet, he was only ever quiet when he was asleep, hunting or in incredibly deep thought. She glanced over at him and from the natural light given off by his Celestial Steed she noticed that to her shock he was fast asleep in the saddle. She nearly fell off her own mount seeing Kael so casually slumped in his saddle.

"That idiot is going to be the death of me one day…" She sighed, pulling her mount closer to his to gently grab the reins of the steed and guide them into Booty Bay, whereupon she had to explain to the innkeeper that there was nothing suspicious going on, though for Booty Bay suspicious was a relative term. Kuronox easily hefted Kael into the room she bought for him and casually threw him onto the bed, knowing full well that he wouldn't wake up, Ace padded into the room and sat at the foot of the bed and just looked at her.  
"Good night to you to mutt." She said with a small smirk.  
Ace responded the only way he knew, with one sharp bark, which amusingly woke Kael up somewhat from his sleep as he scrambled to grab his bow, ending up with him falling on the ground and mumbling before falling back asleep on the floor as Ace leapt onto the bed to make himself comfortable. It took all of Kuronox's considerable restraint to wait until she was back in her room before she exploded into bouts of laughter, she'd never let him forget that for the rest of his days.

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**So yes, this was a very old story that I went back to and realised it was almost finished anyway so why not just tie it up and upload it?**

**Please do let me know how you thought with some reviews etc. If you enjoyed this story, why not check out the other ones on my profile and Caro666's?  
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**Ciao**


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